Bus Services 80/81 to change again
Owing to the withdrawal of funding by Wiltshire Council the bus services through Chiseldon, the 80 between Swindon, Chiseldon, Marlborough, Tidworth and Ludgershall and the 81, Swindon, Chiseldon and Thorney Park are to change again. The changes take effect on Monday 5th August. The first two buses in the morning to Swindon at 07:09 and 07:49 will be the only buses from the village before 9:00 as all the other services after 08:00 are to be cut. This will only leave an X5 service at 08:36 from the main road for people to travel into Swindon for 09:00.
There will be a new Service 80 from the Chiseldon Memorial Hall running Monday-Friday at 09:07 and 09:09 from the Landmark stop.
The Service 81 at 09:39 remains and the rest of the services through the day of the 80 and 81 are only slightly changed.
The current last bus at night the 20:20 is to be withdrawn so that the only bus into Swindon in the evening will be the 19:42.
Buses bound for Marlborough. The 05:40 from Swindon is to be withdrawn. The 06:00, Chiseldon 06:20 will remain. The 07:10 will be withdrawn which was the 07:42 from Chiseldon that currently takes children to St John’s School in Marlborough and brings workers in for the two nursing homes in Badbury and Chiseldon. Our MP, Robert Buckland and our new Borough Councillor, Jenny Jefferies are working to get a replacement bus for this service. One of the ideas is to run an early morning X5 to cover this service.
An alternative to this for children to be driven to Liddington to catch Service 48 to Marlborough. This is presently a Thamesdown service but will change to a Stagecoach West service on 29 July, due to funding by Wiltshire Council.
The Saturday services are also due to change with the last Service 80 out of Swindon at 17:10, leaving only two X5 services on a Saturday to come to Chiseldon at 17:40 and 18:30. The 18:30 does come into Chiseldon village.
The Sunday service will change from Stagecoach West to Salisbury Reds from 4th August. At present we do not know which route this bus will operate. This will run on as a two hourly service.
Swindon Borough Council have nearly completed the roadworks in Wellington Street which have been ongoing for a substantial amount of time. This connects you from the Bus Station to the Railway Station.
The Mannington roundabout in West Swindon has roadworks due to start on the third phase, changing road layout for the exit from the Mannington Retail Park (John Lewis).
Work starts in September on reshaping the Junction 15 roundabout. This is likely to cause extensive delays for traffic from Chiseldon.
Further afield the A417 “missing link” roadworks will not start until Autumn 2021, which does seem a long time to wait.
David Hill